Monthly Archives: May 2012

Every few weeks, we make changes to GoSoapBox. Updates typically include new features, bug fixes, and code improvements for better performance and stability.

On Sunday, we rolled out our latest changes, which are summarized below.

New Feature: Instant Polling

We added a new Polling feature for GoSoapBox, called Instant Polling. Instant Polling acts similarly to some other polling products in that you can take a pre-existing set of questions (perhaps in a PowerPoint presentation) and give your audience a generic set of responses (A, B, C, D, E, etc).

Instant Polling’s graph updates in real time. You can easily change the number of options, or clear the data for a new question.

A Slightly Different URL

The next time you join a GoSoapBox Event, you may notice that the URL is slightly differently. Instead of pointing to app.gosoapbox.com, you will be redirected to a.gosoapbox.com.

Everything will work the same, and we may switch back to app.gosoapbox.com at some point in the future. But for now the application will live on a.gosoapbox.com.

Introduction of HTTPS

In addition to a new URL (a.gosoapbox.com), you will also notice that all our application URLs are using HTTPS, and that they have a nifty lock icon next to them.

HTTPS stands for HTTP Secure, and it is a protocol for encrypting transmissions between your computer and our servers. HTTPS is on its way to becoming a standard for all web applications. You will notice it as a default on other websites like you use, like Google and Facebook.

A New Application Host

Over the last month we have been migrating our application to a new web host, PHP Fog, and this rollout completes that migration. The change was necessary because we want GoSoapBox to be in an environment that can scale to meet the growing demands of our users. With this migration complete, we will be pushing product updates more frequently.

Different Labels on Application Homepage

We have had a lot of people from outside education using GoSoapBox and asking for a version that is not specific to teachers and students. As a first step toward this, we changed the labels on the application to homepage from “Students: Join an Event” and “Teachers: Sign In” to “Join a GoSoapBox Event” and “Sign In”.

Through our friends at Toodalu.com (another Chicago based startup), we have the opportunity to donate a percentage of our business expenses directly to a charity of our choice and we thought, what better way to show our appreciation for teachers than donating money to an education based charity of their choice? So that’s what we’re doing.

How It Works…

Any time we use our credit card at a Toodalu partnered establishment, 5% of the expense will be directly donated to a charity of our choice.

We have also linked our personal credit cards to Toodalu, and will donate those returns to the same charity.

How Do You Get Involved?

We’ve created a GoSoapBox event and have listed a few education based charities to get the ball rolling.

We have the opportunity to donate to any charity we choose. Feel free to add any education based charity around the world… just make sure to include enough info.

At the end of next week we will link our credit cards to the charity that has the most votes.

Teachers play one of the most important, and perhaps under appreciated roles in our world and we’re excited about this opportunity to give a little back. We don’t want to limit the voting to GoSoapBox users, so feel free to share the information with any other teachers in your life.

Our users play a huge roll in building our product, and we like to think of you as ‘Part of the team’, so we want to give you guys a little more visibility into the company behind the product.

GoSoapBox is based out of Chicago, IL. While the epicenter of technological innovation has long been linked to Silicon Valley, over the past few years Chicago has quietly made it’s way onto the entrepreneurial scene. With an increasing number of resources for entrepreneurs to access, we are really excited to be part of this growing ecosystem of innovation.

Downtown Chicago

Yesterday marked the official opening of one of Chicago’s newest and most exciting initiatives towards promoting this entrepreneurial community. A brand new, 50,000 sq foot, co-working and incubation space called 1871.

1871 is the new headquarters of GoSoapBox….let us show you around!

The collaborative workspace at 1871

1871 is the new home of 65 of Chicago's fastest growing tech start-ups

143 foot-long glass white board at 1871

Home to three local universities: Northwestern, University of Illinois, University of Chicago and IIT

In-house Coffee Shop

28 private conference rooms & impressive wall to wall murals

They holds daily entrepreneurship classes with topics ranging from Law to Sales to Design & Development.